Red (18 page)
Chapter 22
“Let me run in and check on Gran,” I said, hopping out of Nate’s car as soon as it came to a stop in the driveway.
“I’m sure she’s fine,” Nate called after me as I sprinted up the front steps. Nonetheless, he followed me in, nearly barreling into me in the living room where I’d come to a dead stop. “What the—” His words died on his tongue when he saw the shattered lamp lying on the floor.
I glanced around the room quickly, noticing the overturned piano bench and stack of magazines scattered on the carpet. Suddenly, Gran’s cry pierced the silence, snapping me into action. I bolted toward the stairs, drawing my gun as I went, fear giving me an injection of speed as I hit the first step.
“Red, wait!” I heard Nate yell after me. “Don’t go up there!”
Like hell!
I scoffed inwardly. No way was I going to hang back and let some psychotic werewolf tear my Gran apart. The woman had taken me in when no one else cared. She was the only family I had, and I’d be damned if I was going to let anyone take that away from me.
I scoffed inwardly. No way was I going to hang back and let some psychotic werewolf tear my Gran apart. The woman had taken me in when no one else cared. She was the only family I had, and I’d be damned if I was going to let anyone take that away from me.
Another scream rent the air as I reached the top landing. Without pausing to consider what manner of beast might be lurking within, I slammed my shoulder against her partially closed bedroom door, throwing it out of my way so I could level my gun on Gran’s attacker.
A startled cry burst from me before I could stop it, and I fumbled my gun, barely avoiding shooting the parties within. For a moment, I could only stare, my feet turned to stone by the sight before me. Even now words fail me, the scene far too disturbing to describe. After a split second of pure, unadulterated horror, the magnitude of the situation struck me in the gut, forcing the wind from my lungs in an agonized gasp and sending me stumbling backward out of the bedroom. Without a word, I whirled around and raced down the steps, shoving my gun back into its holster.
I heard Gran calling my name, but there was no freaking way I was going back up there.
“Go!” I yelled at Nate, motioning him toward the door. “Go, go, go! Get out of the house!”
I bolted down the steps and toward my Range Rover, hopping into the driver’s seat and slamming the door. Shaking, I put my head down on the steering wheel, trying to banish the images seared into my retinas.
I heard Nate get in and close the door. For a moment, he sat in silence. Then the laughter started. Low at first—little more than a quiet chuckle, really. Then it built into a guffaw that filled the confines of my SUV.
“Shut up,” I mumbled, too nauseated to do more than cast a sidelong glance his way.
“I told you not to go upstairs,” he chortled, wiping tears from his eyes. “Maybe you’ll listen to me next time.”
“Piss off.”
“Didn’t you notice the clothes on the floor of the living room?” Nate asked.
“Oh, God!” I cried, covering my ears. “Don’t talk about it!”
Nate’s laughter started anew, doubling him over as he gleefully enjoyed my discomfort.
Humiliation suddenly overcoming my nausea, I started the Rover and tore out of the driveway, angrily careening down the street. As soon as I hit the interstate, I pulled out my phone and scrolled through my contacts.
“Who are you calling?” Nate asked, still struggling to keep his amusement in check.
“Nicky,” I hissed. “I’m telling him to call off his hornball bodyguard before I cap his ass.”
Nate leaned over and jerked the phone out of my hands. “Leave it alone, Red.”
I gave him a furious glare, then turned my attention back to the road. “Eddie was—” I paused, swallowing something dark and acidic in my throat, and lowered my voice to a whisper. “He was
fornicating
with my Gran! That image will be burned into my brain forever.”
fornicating
with my Gran! That image will be burned into my brain forever.”
“Fornicating?”
Nate repeated, choking on the word. To his credit, he tried valiantly to hide his grin, but I knew it was there. “Red, come
on
! Tilly is a grown woman who is more than capable of making her own choices. Besides, in all these years, has she ever interfered in
your
love life?”
Nate repeated, choking on the word. To his credit, he tried valiantly to hide his grin, but I knew it was there. “Red, come
on
! Tilly is a grown woman who is more than capable of making her own choices. Besides, in all these years, has she ever interfered in
your
love life?”
I pressed my lips together, refusing to answer, mostly because I would have had to admit he was right.
“Apparently, she likes Eddie,” Nate reminded me. “And he’s definitely taken with
her
. Instead of being upset you should be happy for her. Don’t you think she’d be happy for you if the situation were reversed?”
her
. Instead of being upset you should be happy for her. Don’t you think she’d be happy for you if the situation were reversed?”
I heaved a heavy sigh of resignation. “No fair being reasonable.”
Nate grinned at me. “Sorry. Bad habit.”
My phone buzzed in Nate’s hand, so he handed it back to me. Expecting it to be Gran calling to check on me after I barged in on her and Eddie, I frowned when I saw the number on the caller ID wasn’t hers. “It’s Snow.”
Nate’s brows lifted. “Think she’s heard something?”
I shrugged, then answered, “Hey, Snow.”
“Red!” she gasped, her voice strained. “I’m so glad I caught you!”
It took a lot to rattle Snow, but I could tell by the tremor in her voice that something had definitely unsettled her. “What’s going on?”
There was a slight hesitation, as if Snow were weighing her words carefully. “One of my girls has shared some information with me that I thought you might find useful.”
“What did she tell you?” I asked, sending Nate a significant look. He leaned toward me so he could listen in on the conversation.
There was another hesitation. “Have you visited Dave Hamelin’s assistant yet?”
“Yeah,” I said slowly. “Why?”
“Did she tell you the names of any other clients?”
“She gave us a list of clients,” I told her, “but we haven’t had a chance to look at it yet. It’s been a little crazy.”
Snow exhaled slowly, a sure sign that she was stalling—whether her reservations were real or just for dramatic effect, I couldn’t tell. “Red, it appears there are some odd business dealings going on. My employee didn’t know any of the names of those involved, but she said Dave had mentioned that he was going to be set for life as soon as his boss eliminated some complications.”
Nate and I exchanged glances. Dave Hamelin’s suicide and the murders were starting to dovetail a lot more than I would have liked.
“Red?”
“Yeah, I’m here,” I replied. “Thanks for the information, Snow. It’s more helpful than you know.”
“There’s one other thing,” Snow said quickly. “Red, please be careful. After you left the other day, Ted thought for sure he saw . . .”
“Saw what?”
Snow cleared her throat daintily. “He said it looked like you were being tailed. I am afraid you might have stumbled onto something quite dangerous.”
That was an understatement.
“Thanks, Snow,” I replied, choosing not to divulge to either her or Nate that I’d felt someone watching our every move for a while now. “I’ll be in touch.”
I’m not sure what kind of expression I was wearing after I hung up the phone, but whatever it was must have given away something of the thoughts whirling around in my head.
“How long have you known you were being followed?” Nate demanded drily.
I shrugged. “Pretty much from the beginning. It started after Gran’s attack. I felt someone in the tunnels with me.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?”
I lifted my shoulder again. “I thought maybe this whole thing just had me on edge. I didn’t want you to think I was being paranoid.”
“And now?”
“And now I think I never would have forgiven myself if the creature had hurt Trish,” I admitted. “It’s bad enough that the evidence is compromised.”
Nate didn’t immediately respond. When he did, it wasn’t what I was expecting. “You couldn’t have known the creature would attack her. You said yourself that anyone would have known where to go looking for the evidence that Trish had collected.”
“That’s it?” I asked, surprised at his lack of reprimand.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re not going to scold me, tell me I was being reckless, demand that I be more careful?”
Nate gave me a lopsided grin. “It doesn’t do any good, so why waste the breath?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. “Point taken.”
“Besides,” Nate continued, “it’s not like I can chastise you when I felt it, too.”
My eyes went wide as I glanced his way. “You did?”
“Uh, yeah,” Nate said, coming just short of rolling his eyes. “I didn’t get to be a Reaper by ignoring my instincts.”
“How
did
you become a Reaper?” I asked, glad to segue to a different topic. “I don’t think I’ve ever asked.”
did
you become a Reaper?” I asked, glad to segue to a different topic. “I don’t think I’ve ever asked.”
Nate’s face immediately shuttered. “It’s not a very exciting story.”
“We have a few more minutes before we get to the restaurant if you feel like sharing,” I told him, trying to keep my tone indifferent even though I was dying to know the origins of his position among the ranks of the afterworld.
Nate suddenly took an inordinate amount of interest in the pleat of his slacks. “Let’s just say I fit a certain profile.”
“Okay, so you were recruited,” I commented. “Not so different than me.”
This brought his gaze up to me briefly before he turned his attention to a loose string on the cuff of his trench. “Not exactly.”
I couldn’t help the slightly exasperated sigh that escaped me. “Is having this conversation going to be this laborious the entire time, or at some point are you going to participate without me prying it out of you?”
“It’s not something I’ve ever shared with anyone,” he admitted.
My brows shot up. “Not even Al?”
Nate shook his head. “He never asked.”
“Is that a not so subtle way of telling me to mind my own business?”
Nate exhaled slowly. Then, without turning to look at me, he said, “If there’s anyone I’d share my story with, Red, it’s you.”
Touched by his words, I felt my cheeks flooding with warmth and offered him a shy smile. “Thanks, Nate.”
“What, no witty comeback?” he teased.
The weight of his gaze made me shift a little uneasily in my seat and adjust my hold on the steering wheel. “I just appreciate you feeling that way,” I told him with a shrug. “That’s all.”
We drove in silence for a few miles, and I had just resigned myself to the fact that Nate wasn’t going to tell me anything more, when he suddenly blurted, “I used to be human—an Ordinary.”
Those words hit me like a punch to the gut. I think I even gasped with the impact. My head began to spin, making the road ripple and bow in front of me. Feeling like I was about to hurl, I swerved over to the shoulder and threw the Range Rover into park.
“Red? Are you okay?”
I turned in my seat and stared at him for a moment before I could bring my brain back under control enough to speak. “How could you have been an Ordinary? You’re a Tale like me.”
Nate shook his head. “I never told you that. You just assumed it like everyone else. I only told you I was here on special assignment.”
I ran my hands through my hair, trying to stay calm. I don’t know why it bothered me so much that Nate had been an Ordinary, but it did. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that he’d had a real life at one point, an existence that hadn’t been dictated by some storyteller’s imagination. I had only experienced that kind of freedom since coming over to the Here and Now, but Nate had always known it. Maybe I was just jealous. And afraid. I mean, what if he woke up one day and decided he didn’t want to live as a Tale anymore? What would I—What would the
FMA
do then? We’d be without our best detective.
FMA
do then? We’d be without our best detective.
“You said you
were
Ordinary,” I pointed out, still dazed by the revelation. “Does that mean you were truly alive at one point?”
were
Ordinary,” I pointed out, still dazed by the revelation. “Does that mean you were truly alive at one point?”
“If you want to call it that,” Nate replied. “I lived during ancient times. I was a soldier. Then a slave.”
I gaped at him, my heart clenching at the thought that he’d belonged to someone else. Perhaps I’d been too quick in my jealousy. “What happened?”
“Like I said, I have good instincts,” Nate said, his tone flat like he was just commenting on the weather. “My master used my talents to ferret out his enemies—and if their treachery was confirmed, I took care of it.”
I jerked back a little, startled by the sudden truth. “You were an assassin.”
Nate inclined his head a degree, confirming my suspicion. “And a damned good one.”
“So, how did you die?”
He gave me a brief, sardonic smile. “There’s always someone better.”
I blinked at him in disbelief, trying to reconcile the Nate I knew with the murderous slave he’d once been. “And then you became a Reaper?”
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